LIEBHERR European Championships
Favorites showed no weakness in the second round of the day at the LIEBHERR European Championships. In the Salle Sportive Métropolitaine in Men’s Teams Event Slovenia overcame Netherlands Belarus beat Luxembourg and in Women’s Teams Event Hungary overcame Belgium. All duels finished in straight matches. Only Serbia managed to extend their match to four matches but eventually lost to Netherlands.
Georgina POTA overcame Margo DEGRAEF Dora MADARASZ overcame Lisa LUNG and Szandra PERGEL beat Nathalie MARCHETTI.
“The victory was expected as Hungary has a better-ranked team. Still this is European championship and you never know you had to keep focus. My adversary had some problem with blocks as I used many variations in my game. I have often put a lot of spinning in my ball ” said Georgina POTA.
LI Jie of Netherlands showed no weakness against Andrea TODOROVIC and Izabela LUPULESKU. Britt EERLAND was forced to go full distance against LUPULESKU and it was only Tijana JOKIC who managed to score against Kim VERMAAS.
“My matches seem to be easy but it was not what happened at the table. You have to adjust to the new play conditions. In my second match I had to attack each time I had the opportunity to win the point ” said LI Jie.
Slovenia showed no mercy against Netherlands. All three matches concluded in straight games. Bojan TOKIC Darko JORGIC and Deni KOZUL overcame Ewout OOSTWOUDER Laurens TROMER and Rajko GOMMERS.
“The start of the game was rather easy for me as I quickly won 2-0. I managed to make the difference in the third game and at the time of finish the match my adversary came back. It is always difficult to play the decisive matches but as number three I must expected that ” said KOZUL.
Belarus had solid performance against Luxembourg. Pavel PLATONOV lost only one game against Luka MLADENOVIC Vladimr SAMSONOV and Aliaksandr KHANIN continued in the same style against Eric GLOD and Christian KILL.
“It was my first game and in the beginning I was a bit stressed but then I got more relaxed and I could adapt better to my opponent’s game. I just kind of like that serve and feel more confident when I start the game with it. Against England it will be a really tough game of course they are a great team but we are too. So let’s see ! ” said SAMSONOV.
